This article is from page 4 of the 2007-04-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
MARGUERITE O’Dwyer was ly- ing on the couch, smiling, when her brother approached her with a ham- mer and repeatedly attacked her.
Patrick O’Dwyer told gardai that the two were watching television on Monday evening, November 29, 2004, when he left the sitting room to go into the kitchen.
“At about 11.30pm, I just remem- bered going out to the kitchen. I took the hammer out of the press. Marguerite was lying on the couch. She was smiling at me. She thought I was messing. I would often be messing with her with a hurley and things. I swung the hammer and hit
her on the head five or six times. I hit her on the chest,” he told gardai. He said his sister wasn’t scream- ing. She was alive. He then got a knife from the kitchen and a Scis- sors from the bathroom and started jabbing her to the ribs and legs. At that stage she was on the ground.
He later went down town, before returning to the house and drinking a half can of beer. He went upstairs and stuck a blade into a vein on his left wrist and hit himself to the head a few times with a hammer.
He brought firelighters upstairs and considered setting fire to the house.
He said he did not realise the sig- nificance of what he had done until
the following day when he touched his sister and her head was cold. He then went to Ennistymon garda sta- BLOyEE
He said he originally got the ham- mer to hit himself as he felt he had made “a fool” out of himself the previous Saturday night, by drink- ing excessively.
The court heard that when the ac- cused arrived at Ennistymon garda station on the afternoon of Novem- ber 30, he showed a garda a cut to his head and mark to his wrist. The garda noted that he had a mark on his nose.
Garda Alan Keane went to O’Dwyer’s home, where he found the young woman’s body in the sit-
ting room.
He said there was a considerable amount of blood on the floor and the woman was lying down, face up.
A white blanket covered her legs and there was no sign of a pulse.
Under cross-examination by the accused’s barrister, Patrick Gage- by, SC, the garda admitted that the scene was “shocking”.
Sergeant Brian Howard told the tri- al that, after the accused arrived at the local garda station, gardai were concerned about his health. He was taken to Ennis General Hospital.
A senior psychiatrist assessed him and concluded he “had not psychiat- ric problems and was not a danger to himself”.